"I don't trust it": Almost one in ten Spaniards refuses to get third vaccine

Almost one out of every ten Spaniards refuses to get the third vaccine against coronavirus, as the recommendations are changing constantly and this does not inspire confidence.
More than twenty million Spaniards have received the third vaccine against coronavirus, but a minority is reluctant. According to the latest research by the Spanish Centre of Sociological Research (CIS), around 84.5% of those who have received at least one dose are willing to get the third jab, but 9% are unwilling and 4% are unsure.
There are many factors behind the uncertainty: fear, skepticism, doubts about its protection, or simply confusion due to contradictory messages from the health authorities. “To all those having doubts, I tell them to trust science,” stated Isabel Jimeno, from the Spanish Society of General and Family Doctors (SEMG).
According to data from the Ministry of Health, on January 26 the number of people who had received at least one dose of the vaccine was 39,080,436 (92% of over-12s) and the number of those with two doses was 38,264,820 (90.7%). A total of 20,289,629 people had received the third dose.
Jimeno insists to all her patients that the third dose provides significant protection. Although older patients are usually willing to get it, those between 20 and 40 years old are more “critical”, but they usually change their minds when the benefits of the booster jab are explained to them. “There are very few pure negationists who really don’t believe in the vaccine. Most of them just ask questions, and that’s good,” she added.
“I’m not an anti-vaxxer, but I don’t trust it. I’m not scared of the vaccine – I got the previous two doses – but now I prefer to wait because they keep changing the recommendations and I’m going to see what happens,” said Julia Martín, a 50-year-old from Galicia who refuses to get the jab for the time being, to La Opinión de Málaga.
“They could say, later on, that a new variant of COVID-19 has appeared and this vaccine doesn’t protect against it, so I’m going to wait,” said Martín. “In theory, with the second vaccine I’m already protected enough to not end up seriously ill in hospital, and knowing that you can still get infected with another dose, I prefer to wait,” she insisted. She will continue to avoid large groups of people and use a mask for as long as necessary.
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